NBC will take 'Rosemary's Baby' to Paris for miniseries remake

John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski's 1968 version of "Rosemary's Baby."

John Cassavetes and Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski's 1968 version of "Rosemary's Baby." (Paramount Pictures)

Patrick Kevin Day

"Rosemary's Baby," the classic novel and film about a woman carrying the Devil's baby, is getting a modern updating and a change of scenery. On Tuesday, NBC announced it was green-lighting a four-hour miniseries based on Ira Levin's novel, which also served as the basis for Roman Polanski's 1968 film starring Mia Farrow.

The new miniseries will take place in Paris, with a young married couple moving into an apartment with a creepy history. Pretty soon, the wife is pregnant, her husband and the neighbors are acting funny and there's a growing suspicion that when the baby arrives, it'll have cloven hooves and a pair of horns.

Oscar-nominee Agnieszka Holland will direct the miniseries, which is being written by Scott Abbott and James Wong. Casting is beginning immediately with a January start date for production in Paris.

Both Levin's original novel and Polanski's film were set in New York City. Ruth Gordon, who plays one of the neighbors in the film, won a supporting actress Oscar for the role.

The announcement of the miniseries, something that has become exceedingly rare on network TV these days, comes on the heels of NBC's success with resurrecting another classic film, "The Sound of Music" in an old-fashioned format, the live dramatic production.

Despite much criticism of Carrie Underwood's acting abilities, "The Sound of Music" was a ratings hit for NBC, with 18.6 million tuning in for the three-hour live event. That exceeded the network's expectations.